Socket wrenches, socket drivers, sockets, socket extenders and other hand tools are usually offered to consumers in pre-packaged sets, consisting, for example, of various socket and/or socket driver sizes. Hand tools are traditionally packaged in three ways. First, the tools may be loose for bulk display and sales. Second, the tools may be enclosed in nonreusable display packaging. Third, the tools may be placed in boxes that serve as both shipping containers and reusable storage devices designed for future use by the consumer for tool storage purposes.
Such present tool packaging and displaying practices have significant disadvantages, however. Loose bulk displays are not favored by retailers given their inherent propensity for promoting shoplifting and preventing inventory control of loose tools. Moreover, these inefficiencies affect the consumer by causing increased hand tool prices. Non-reusable display packaging of plastic films, such as overwraps, heat shrink packing, and blister packs may ameliorate the disadvantages of loose or bulk displays, but create significant environmental burdens following first use of the enclosed tools because such materials are not recyclable nor biodegradable. Packaging in rigid containers, which are intended for reuse by the consumer, have also traditionally not been in the most desirable form, and often entail excessive difficulty and expense from the standpoint of manufacture, product loading, and assembly. For instance, reusable metal packaging provides many difficulties including a propensity to rust, thereby creating added expense in painting all exposed metal, the possibility of tool damage from metal enclosures, the additional shipping expense due to weight increase from the metal package, the added expense of welding or package component assembly, and general inflexibility in merchandising. With the advent of plastic, and blow molded configurations in general, many of the inherent disadvantages of metal were replaced by disadvantages of blow molded plastic and associated process, namely packaging dimensional inefficiencies such as thicker wall sections required by the blow molding process, lack of package durability, and other inherent general design limitations in molding tools due to blow molded plastic properties.
Nevertheless, consumers continue to need a means for storage of their tools in a neat and well organized manner. Many forms of reusable storage products for tools have been disclosed in the prior art, typical of which are those described in the foregoing United States Patents. U.S. Pat. No. 4,819,800 to Wilson describes a toolbox formed of identical shallow halves hinged together so that they can be folded and locked and carried by integral handles. A set of supports permit the box to be temporarily attached to a vertical wall.
A wall mounted tool cabinet is taught in Fibus U.S. Pat. No. 4,118,085, which consists of three units hinged to one another, each unit formed of four plastic frame sections and a peg board material backing thereto to position tools therein with standard wire hooks.
An integrally formed, plastic member capable of being erected into a tool rack is shown in Wallace U.S. Pat. No. 4,653,637; it is packaged along with a set of screw drivers for which the rack is intended to be used.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,987,998 to Tsai describes a metal frame plate with removable metal C-shaped clips for collecting and storing sockets and socket wrenches, which are mounted on the metal frame.
Despite the foregoing, a need still exists for an effective and yet relatively inexpensive reusable tool package system which securely holds a component hand tool in place during shipping, storage, and display, that may be interlocked with mating storage and display components to provide a permanent storage case for various tool sets, as well as a project support device where the tool case may be unfolded thereby creating a wall display and storage unit.
Accordingly, it is a broad object of the present invention to provide a novel packaging system comprising reusable components thereby eliminating tool packaging debris.
It is also an object of the invention to provide a novel article to store and organize a tool set which may be mounted on vertical surfaces, erected to stand freely on horizontal surfaces, and folded into a readily portable unit.
Another object of the invention is to provide a durable, shatter resistant reusable package which is economical and manufacturable.
It is a final object to provide a novel package with the foregoing features and advantages, together with a plurality of tools to be supported, organized, and displayed thereby.